


Sparky rocks

by calcliffbas



Series: Elements 101 [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bending (Avatar), Conflict Resolution, Family Dynamics, Gen, Minor Sokka/Suki, Philosophy, Post-Episode: s03e14-15 The Boiling Rock, Protective Katara (Avatar), Snark, Team as Family, Teasing, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Western Air Temple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26520892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calcliffbas/pseuds/calcliffbas
Summary: “Did I ever tell you about the time a turtleduck made my ankle bleed?”“No, but it does sound like the sort of thing that could only happen to you.”Toph and Zuko have an understanding: she's awesome, and he's an idiot. They still care about each other anyway.
Relationships: Toph Beifong & Katara, Toph Beifong & Zuko
Series: Elements 101 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926430
Comments: 6
Kudos: 242





	Sparky rocks

**Author's Note:**

> Come hang out with me on [Tumblr!](https://calcliffbas.tumblr.com/)

> _‘The people of the Water Tribe are capable of adapting to many things. They have a deep sense of community and love that holds them together through anything.’_
> 
> – Iroh, 'Bitter Work'.

“I’m just saying.”

Toph is staring at Zuko, and he has to remind himself that she’s blind. Especially when she’s looking in his direction with what feels like real judgement.

“You went to a place that’s literally called the Boiling _Rock_ ,” she continues, “In the middle of a _lake_ – and you decided to go without an earthbender or a waterbender. Great job on getting caught, by the way. You dumbass.”

In truth, Zuko hadn’t put that much thought into their little fishing trip, and he suspects Sokka hadn’t either. He’d checked with the guards in the prison cafeteria, and they’d been a little confused by his question, but apparently the Boiling Rock didn’t even have a _daycare_ center, let alone one for a ten-tonne bison. Which is fair – Zuko doesn’t quite know how he’d deal with Appa in that situation either.

He knows how to deal with Toph, though.

“You’re not even asking ‘cause you care,” he says. “You’re just jealous we went on an awesome prison break without you.”

She looks at him for a moment longer before she unfolds her arms and lets out a mournful sigh.

“Did you really get thrown in a cooler?” She asks.

He nods with a ghost of a shiver. “Yeah.”

She sighs again. “ _Awesome_.”

Toph seems to get excited at the weirdest things, but Zuko doesn’t feel like he’s in a position to judge. On the flight back from the prison, he’d tried to talk with Chit Sang, the only other person from the Fire Nation on the airship, and they’d run out of things to talk about after Zuko had asked if he had any thoughts on the deuteragonist in _Love Among The Dragons_.

Chit Sang had looked at him weirdly, but her narrative arc was one of the best examples of a coming-of-age stories Zuko could remember. It was _especially_ impressive that the playwright had fit it into a romance!

“I don’t think Katara would have come, though,” he admits lowly. “So it might have just been you coming along.”

Toph waves her hand dismissively “Nah, Sugar Queen would have been chill. She and I have an understanding.”

“You do?” Zuko had had an understanding with Katara, once. Then he’d sort of thrown it back in her face. He really hopes Toph doesn’t do the same.

Not just for Toph’s sake, although he loves the little earthbender – or at least he _thinks_ he does, because growing up with Azula and having his father… do _that_ to him to teach him a lesson, yeah, he isn’t quite sure what love is _supposed_ to look like. But his mother was kind and made him smile, and Uncle was always there to listen to him and give him advice, and Zuko wants to do these things for Toph, so maybe he _does_ love her, if that’s what love is.

But he remembers the look on Katara’s face in Ba Sing Se, and he knows what it feels like to wake up in the middle of the night with your pillow already wet, because Mom is gone, _Mom’s gone_ , and _she’s not coming back_.

He never meant to hurt her, he tells himself. He _has_ changed. He was confused, he made the wrong choice.

But he _did_ make that choice, and Uncle had been put in chains, and Zuko had almost gotten the Avatar killed. So he understands why Katara is less than pleased to have him around.

_Give me one reason to think you might hurt Aang, and you won't have to worry about your destiny anymore._

What would his mother have said, if she had seen him in Ba Sing Se?

 _Never forget who you are_.

Thud.

_Ouch!_

“Agni _damnit_ – what was that for?” He gripes, cradling his arm and scowling at Toph.

“You spaced out there, Hotpants,” she accuses him.

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Whatever,” she huffs. “I mean, you _did_ ask me a question, and I was telling you the answer, but if you’d rather be _someplace else_ –”

“Oh, hey, no,” Zuko says quickly, stepping closer to her. He knows she senses these things, so it’s his way of showing closeness. Kind of like a smile. “Hey, you know I like listening to you.”

“You’d better,” she tells him, her tone making it clear that he had better never forget how Toph Beifong _deigned_ in her infinite graciousness to allow him to tread the same ground as her. “I’m way better company than anyone else here.”

“If I was going to a summit in Ba Sing Se to meet the Earth King, I’d definitely ask you to accompany me,” Zuko promises her solemnly.

“Didn’t you get involved in a coup and end up deposing that guy?”

Oops. “Uh. Even so.”

Far from appreciating the honor, Toph wrinkles her nose. “Gross. I hate fancy dos like that. Ask Sugar Queen.”

Zuko winces at the thought. “Yeah, no. She’d, uh – yeah. She’d kill me.”

“Yeah, she would,” Toph agrees. “It’s so _weird_ how she hates you.”

“Not really,” Zuko mumbles. “I, um. Really let her down. When I… helped Azula take Ba Sing Se. In that coup you mentioned.”

“Yeah, guess you kind of did,” Toph acknowledges. She is about as willing to soften a blow as Aang is to land one. “Whatever you did, though – you’re here now. You know?”

Zuko manages a smile. “Yeah. Thanks.”

“Whatever, Sparky,” she drawls, and just like that, the moment is past and Zuko has to go back to dealing with this little preteen _punk_ with bare feet who barely breaks five feet tall but has about _ten_ feet of attitude stacked up in a sarcastic pile. “Just come to me the next time you need something doing.”

“What’s Zuko need help with?” Aang asks, bursting in on their little conversation on his air scooter and waving at Zuko with a jaunty grin. “Is it dancing? I know we did a great job with the Dancing Dragon, and that was really cool! But I know this _really_ good Fire Nation dance, and I was thinking –”

“Shut up, Twinkle-Toes,” Toph cuts him off impassively. And _impressively_ , Zuko hasn’t seen anyone do that with Aang. If Katara asks him to keep the noise down, he just babbles on about some _other_ subject at the same volume. When Sokka complains about the noise, he talks even louder. Zuko’s pretty okay with it when Aang does that, though.

And when Zuko tells him to focus on his firebending, he just continues chattering away as he bends. There’s a part of Zuko that’s _sickeningly_ envious of how easily the Avatar can wield the element Zuko was _born_ to. He’s an airbender, and he has so far accomplished in a month what had taken Zuko three years.

But Aang _is_ a good student, and he always smiles when he calls him _sifu Hotman_ – and although Agni knows he _hates_ that title, he doesn’t really hate it when Aang _calls_ him it. It’s complicated.

“ _Actually,_ Fancy Dancer, I was talking to Sparky here about whether he needs any help setting up, the next time we all sit in a circle and listen to you talk about your favourite monks.”

“Why would I need help with that?” Zuko asks.

“I could bend us some bedframes so we could sleep through his _talking_.”

“Oh, you mean Elements 101?” Aang asks, brightening up. “’Cause Sokka was asking me about that earlier, actually!”

“He _was?_ ” Toph asks, and Zuko shares her disbelief. He’d thought Sokka had hated their little sit-down almost as much as Zuko hates that dumb name he’s been calling it.

But Aang nods enthusiastically. “Oh, yeah! Yeah, he was asking whether we’d talked any more about the elements, because obviously being the Avatar means bringing balance to the world, and how can I bring balance if I’m not good at balancing, you know? Oh, no, wait,” he frowns slightly. “That wasn’t what he said. Which makes sense, actually! Because I’m actually really good at balancing. You’ve seen me on my air scooter, right, Hotman?”

"Sure, Aang." Zuko doesn’t need another demonstration. He’d been picking bits of jook out of his hair for half an hour the last time Aang had shown him the scooter trick at breakfast.

“I’m not surprised that’s not what Snoozles said,” Toph says.

“How come?”

“I’d be more surprised if he _did_ say that.”

Aang’s face lends itself quite nicely to an expression Zuko would call _dubious confusion_. “Why’d you be surprised about that?”

“Because the way you’re describing it, Sokka talked for, like, _at least_ thirty seconds about a subject other than meat.” Toph scratches at her ear before adjusting the hem of her shirt. “And that’s not just _weird_. That’s something so weird, the Avatar needs to investigate it. Maybe he’s been taken over by a spirit.”

Zuko still has nightmares about the North Pole.

“I had a talk with Sokka on the way to the prison,” he says instead. “We talked about some clouds for a bit.”

Among other things, but there’s literally no way he’s going to tell Toph about his girlfriend.

Well. Ex-girlfriend, now. He hopes Mai got out okay.

“Clouds are cool,” Aang nods, because he’s the kind of kid who can find _anything_ interesting. Zuko wonders if he would appreciate the coming-of-age subplot of _Love Among The Dragons_.

“Clouds are _not_ cool,” Toph states emphatically. “Hey, Snoozles!”

On the other side of the campfire, Sokka falls over himself. Suki looks a little put out at the interruption.

“What?” Sokka manages, as he makes his way back to his seat.

“Are clouds cool?”

“Eh,” Sokka shrugs his shoulder. “So long as they aren’t rain clouds.”

“I often make use of the cloud tile in Pai Sho,” Chit Sang states. “Within certain midgame situations, it makes for powerful harmonies.”

“Oh, hey!” Aang perks up. “That’s what Sokka was saying!”

“I was?” Sokka mumbles. Suki rolls her eyes fondly and puts her arm around her waist.

“Yeah! Yeah, you were asking me about Elements 101, remember? And you were asking, you know, about how being the Avatar means restoring harmony between the nations, but how can I bring harmony if I don’t have harmony within _myself_ , you know?”

“You don’t have harmony within yourself?” Zuko asks, frowning. That doesn’t sound promising.

“Oh –” Aang shuffles his feet. “No, nothing like _that_ , it’s just – that’s what Sokka said. I’m good!”

“What’s Elements 101?” Haru asks.

Toph laughs. “It’s this dumb name Sucker came up for when we laze around and talk about the elements.”

“You sit down and talk about the elements?” Suki asks her boyfriend.

“Just because I’m not a bender doesn’t mean I can’t contribute,” he replies defensively.

Suki appeases his wounded ego with a kiss that honestly makes Zuko _very_ uncomfortable. _Spirits_ , was that what he and Mai had looked like?

No wonder Azula kept rolling her eyes at them.

“I didn’t mean _that_ ,” Suki says, once Sokka has been reduced to a dopey grin on a pair of slightly-swaying shoulders. “I was just surprised to hear that you can sit down and keep still for an extended period of time.”

“Well,” Sokka says, and it is a _horrifying_ thing to hear the Water Tribe boy using the same tone Uncle Iroh had used when he was trying to flirt with the ladies in Ba Sing Se. “There’s a _lot_ of things I can do for an extended period of time, if you know what I’m –”

“So how about Elements 101?” Katara interrupts loudly. The slightly queasy look on her face is mirrored on Aang’s and, Zuko suspects, his own. Things _must_ be bad if she’s looking to Zuko’s half-assed, hastily organised, barely strung-together attempt at Avatar training to save the day.

“That sounds great!” Aang cheered, steering Zuko over to an empty space on the floor and sitting down right next to him. “What’re we balancing today, Master _Sifu_ Your Highness Hotman?”

Zuko hears Chit Sang say “ _Hotman?_ ” in a confused voice and it’s at times like this that he wants his Blue Spirit mask back, so he can escape into the night without leaving a trace behind.

“How about earth and water?” Toph asks, plonking herself down on his other side with no attempt at the finesse and precision Zuko sees every time she bends. “Like we were talking about earlier, right?”

“Don’t you balance earth with air?” Haru asks confusedly.

“Avatar stuff,” Sokka says wisely, and Haru nods like that’s _any_ kind of explanation. _Whatever_.

“Uh, yeah,” Zuko mumbles, uncomfortable with the way Aang is looking at him like Zuko knows how this thing works. He hadn't even known what he'd been doing with this thing the first time round, and he hadn't exactly planned ahead for a repeat.

He’s also just gotten back from a fairly intense prison break, and, you know, it’s kind of taken it out of him. Teo’s gone exploring because he wants to see how the Eastern Air Temple compares to the Northern one, but it had been _way_ past The Duke’s bedtime when Sokka’s dad had told the kid to be up bright and early for Water Tribe training exercises tomorrow morning. Zuko kind of wants to be well-rested for his daybreak meditations.

But Toph actually looks a little excited for this, and he likes her enough to figure that he can do this for her. Maybe that’s what love is.

He’s not calling it Elements 101, though. That’s _Sokka’s_ stupid name for it.

“So,” he begins, looking at Aang first. “Earth and water. Water and earth. How – what do you think?”

Aang scrunches his face up like he’s in pain, and Zuko’s not sure whether the Avatar is thinking very hard or whether he’s just had the same mental image of Uncle in the hot springs that sometimes comes to Zuko and makes him want to barf.

Just as Zuko is about to ask for what could be a very embarrassing clarification, Aang’s shoulder slump and he opens his eyes.

“I’ve got nothing,” he says resignedly. “All I can see is mud.”

“That’s a lot better than what I could see,” Zuko offers.

“Me too!” Toph says cheerily.

Zuko and Aang both wince. “Sorry, Toph.”

“If I might contribute my piece,” Chit Sang begins, “It may prove beneficial if we define the parameters of our question.”

Sokka cocks his head. “Eh?”

“We try and figure out what we’re talking about,” Suki explains to him with a smile. “Because some of us are new here.”

Sokka gives her a soppy grin. “ _Oh_.”

“Water is the element of change,” Sokka’s dad says. “It’s push and pull. Give and take.”

Zuko _thinks_ his name is Hakoda, but he’s not sure. It could be Dakota, or something. He’ll stick with Hakoda, he decides. The other one sounds weirder.

Katara looks at her dad with something like surprise on her face. “I didn’t know you knew that.”

“Just because I’m not a bender doesn’t mean I don’t know a thing or two, Little Seal,” Hakoda says impressively.

Sokka points at his father with triumph written clear across his features and carved into every inch of his arm, right down to the dramatically wavering index finger. “ _Right?!_ ”

“But earth is consistent,” Haru argues. “It doesn’t give _or_ take. It just _is_. It’s _there_. But I don’t know how you’d make them work together if you can’t make earth work for you.”

“You _do_ make earth work for you, though,” Toph points out with the verbal equivalent of a shrug and a raised eyebrow. “You literally bend it.”

“How do you earthbend?” Zuko asks Aang, choosing to focus on the monk rather than get distracted and rise to Toph’s bait. It’s either because he is older and wiser and Uncle’s influence is making him a more forgiving person, or because _someone_ has to keep the conversation on track.

“Um – by using neutral _jing_?” Aang offers uncertainly. “Do – do firebenders know about _jing?_ ”

Zuko knew a little about positive _jing_ – firebending training in Sozin School mainly consisted of _attack, attack, attack_ – but he didn’t think he counted as an expert. “I haven’t studied earthbending in any great detail.”

“Oh.” Aang looks excited to have the opportunity to teach his firebending _sifu_ something. Zuko supposes it _would_ have been nice to be able to teach _his_ masters something when he was twelve. “Well, when you’re using neutral _jing_ , you need to wait and listen for the right moment. And then act decisively. And that's how you earthbend.”

Zuko nods slowly as he ponders this in his mind. “I guess that makes sense.”

“How do you use neutral _jing_ differently from positive or negative _jing?_ ” Hakoda asks.

Aang leans over to Hakoda like he’s imparting a trade secret. Which is ridiculous. From what Zuko saw of the Avatar when he was chasing him, and from what he has learnt since he joined him, the Avatar cannot keep a secret for love nor money nor all the power of the spirits.

_Showing up to Chin Village on Avatar Day? Really?_

“With weighted _jing_ , you move,” Aang says knowledgeably. “But with neutral _jing_ , you wait.”

Zuko can’t help but chuckle. “Did Toph teach you that?”

Toph smirks. “Pretty good, right? It’s catchy.”

“If it works,” Zuko allows.

“So how might one go about balancing the _jing_ of earth and water?” Chit Sang asks curiously. “It seems at first glance that the question is essentially paradoxical.”

“He’s right,” Katara says. “Water goes between positive and negative jing. You need to keep the balance.”

Sokka frowns and shakes his head. “You can’t stop the tides, Katara.”

She scowls at her brother. “I’m getting there!”

“Well, yeah, obviously _literally_ you can, but it was more a figure of speech –”

Zuko gives Sokka the same look he has repeatedly given Aang whenever he feels that the younger boy is getting distracted in their meditative training. Surprisingly, it works on him.

Now that Zuko thinks about it, Aang gets distracted _a lot_.

When he turns his attention to Katara, however, he is striving to make sure that his face is as patient and open as he can possibly make it. “Sokka’s right, though. Water isn’t a still element.”

“Still better than firebending,” she retorts.

Toph opens her mouth to say something, but Zuko taps her foot lightly. She’s still a little tense, but she settles back down. There’s a slight lull in the conversation as everyone ponders the question.

To Zuko’s surprise, it’s Suki who breaks the silence.

“If earth is neutral, then it doesn’t use either positive or negative _jing_ ,” she says matter-of-factly. “But if water uses _both_ , then it’s the opposite. You can use your opponent’s strength against them with waterbending, but you need to be decisive in earthbending and be able to rely on your own strength.”

Then again, Zuko had been there as Suki had made her way through a prison riot unscathed, scaled two floors and captured the warden of the Boiling Rock, and then fought Ty Lee to a standstill on top of a moving gondola above a boiling-hot lake, so he thinks that maybe it’s just a good idea to _never_ be surprised if Suki exhibits complete mastery of any subject whatsoever.

“That’s, uh, pretty good,” he gives her a small smile which she accepts with a cool nod. She accepts Sokka’s one-armed hug with the same attitude, like these offerings of approval are rightfully owed to her simply due to the sheer fact of her existence. She’s probably right about that, too.

Zuko turns back to Aang. “So how do you balance earth and water, if you have to go between your strength and your opponent’s strength?”

Aang meets his eyes and gives him a _very_ good answer. “You need to know when to stand your ground on your own, and when you have to move with, around, or against what the other person's doing.”

Zuko gives him a smile in return. He thinks it’s a pretty good trade.

He’d _never_ gotten smiles from his firebending teachers when he got stuff right.

“That sounds good to me!” Sokka crows.

“It _would_ sound good to you, Sucker,” Toph mutters. “You only know three _jing_ out of eighty-five.”

“Oh, really?” Sokka asks, and Zuko shakes his head amusedly. Distracted, as he so often is, by the prospect of an argument. Sokka quirks his eyebrow and props his chin on his fist. “And how many do _you_ know, Miss Beifong?”

The tiny earthbender snorts. “I know _you_ instinctively use dumbass _jing_ on a daily basis.”

Instead of getting mad, Sokka just laughs like Toph has told him the funniest joke in the world. Zuko _cannot_ understand their relationship, so he doesn’t attempt to.

…

“I’m just saying.”

“Shut up, Hotpants,” Toph bites back. She’s ten feet of attitude and about _twenty_ feet of sarcasm right now, and Zuko has only been gone for ten minutes whilst he went to get his spark rocks out of his room, but she'd been a manageable combination of (justifiable) self-confidence and sly mockery when he had left.

He wonders what’s happened in the last ten minutes.

“I’m just saying,” he tries again. “I liked those spark rocks.”

“You’re a _firebender_ , Sparky,” Toph snits at him. “What were you _doing_ with them anyway?”

He had brought them along to the Western Air Temple because he’d had a feeling they wouldn’t feel comfortable with him firebending all the time. He’d figured that having spark rocks would be a nice way to light the cooking fires whilst showing them that he was trying to be considerate of their feelings.

“I thought we could mess about with them,” he says instead of trying to verbalise all that. “We could see if you could bend them against each other in the air, and try and light them. And, uh. You just threw them off the edge of the Temple. I’m just saying.”

“You’re _just saying_ a lot,” Toph says grumpily, folding her arms. “But you’re not actually saying _anything_. _What?_ ”

“Nothing,” Zuko traces a circular pattern in the dirt. “It’s just – do you, like, hate spark rocks, or something?”

“This isn’t about your stupid _spark rocks_ , Zuko.”

Toph never refers to him by his name. Zuko suspects she makes a habit of it. She only calls _Sugar Queen_ Katara when she’s annoyed with the older girl. The one time he can remember Toph referring to Aang by name is when he was trying a new airbending trick shot with his marbles and knocked her jook out of her hands.

She refers to Sokka by name quite a bit, actually.

So rather than keep tracing round Toph’s mood with a light touch, Zuko sighs and prepares to deal with the issue head on. He’s half-expecting a rock formation to launch him into the air before he even opens his mouth.

“So what happened when I went back to my room?”

Toph grunts. “Sugar Queen stopped by wondering what I was doing hanging round on my own.”

“Okay.”

“So I told her I wasn’t hanging round on my own.”

Zuko nods, because he thinks he can see the picture forming now. “Ah.”

“Yeah.”

“She didn’t like that I’d left you waiting?” He asks tentatively. “Sorry, I – I’d kind of lost the spark rocks. They were under my bed.”

Toph snorts. “I don’t care about your spark rocks, Hotpants.”

“Yeah, I know,” he says, because he is aware of this. “You made that pretty clear when you threw them off the edge.”

“I’ll throw _you_ off the edge if you don’t quit complaining about them.”

“I’m just saying,” he mutters, but he reaches out an arm and taps out a pattern on the ground, quite close to Toph’s feet. He knows she can sense it.

“So Sugar got annoyed and told me she doesn’t like the way we spend so much time together.”

“You and me?” Zuko checks.

For someone who has never seen what other people look like when they are unimpressed, Toph has a _really_ good unimpressed face. “No, Sparky. Me and Splish-Splash. _Duh_.”

“Alright, alright,” he rolls his eyes and raps the ground with his knuckles, and Toph snorts, so he thinks it must have done the trick. “So she didn’t like how we’re hanging out?”

“And I _told_ her that we were just hanging out!” It suddenly bursts out of Toph, and she clenches her toes and a slight fissure develops in the stonework. Zuko can’t control his heartbeat, but he does his best not to twitch.

Toph punches his arm, so he probably didn’t do as good a job as he had hoped to. But she does it lightly, so he figures that counts as an apology.

If Toph brought down the Western Air Temple, the Avatar would be unhappy.

And Katara would probably blame it on him and his influence, too.

Toph huffed and rapped the ground herself. “Don’t mind me, Sparky, I’m just baring my soul here for you, _whatever_ …”

“Uh, sorry.” He turns to face her fully, and crosses his legs for good measure. “You told her we were just talking, you said?”

“Yeah,” Toph nods firmly, her jaw jutting out. “And she said if I had time to hang out with _Zuko_ , I had time to be helping out with the chores! And I _told her_ how you’ve literally just broken her dad out of _prison_ , and she’s _still_ just being a complete – _ugh!_ ”

Toph drags her fingers through her hair and makes an inarticulate, strangled noise. Zuko’s not quite sure what to say in response to that.

“You – you told her that?” He manages. Tentatively, like he’s testing whether the ground will give way.

“Yeah! And then she just went off!”

Zuko’s heard that line before. “Just like that?”

Toph scowls at him. “Shut up.”

“I’m serious!” He suddenly feels a lot better about this, so he grins and taps out another quick pattern on the ground. “She just went off? Just like that?”

Toph mutters something, and his grin becomes a little more of a smirk. “What?”

“I… might have said something to her,” Toph concedes grudgingly. “But I’m not telling _you_ what it was.”

“That’s fair,” Zuko nods. “I, uh. Probably won’t want to hear it.”

“Oh, I forgot,” Toph mocks him like she does everything else – mercilessly. “You _hate_ swearing.”

Toph’s the only one he’s told about three years on a ship with sailors who didn’t want to be there any more than he did. If he had been shocked at their language at thirteen, they had been shocked by _his_ at sixteen. She had laughed at the stories and demanded he teach her to swear.

He thinks she understands being trapped somewhere you hated with people who didn’t understand you.

“Did I ever tell you about the time a turtleduck made my ankle bleed?”

It’s a _really_ embarrassing story, which is why Zuko has picked it. He knows Toph loves laughing at him. Azula does, too, but Toph also makes jokes _for_ him to try and make him laugh.

“No, but it _does_ sound like the sort of thing that could only happen to you. Idiot.” Toph shakes her head. “So, what did you do?”

She shifts slightly so she’s a little closer and facing him. He wonders if maybe Toph loves him _too_ , if that’s what love is.

“I was, like, nine? Or maybe ten? I, uh, saw Azula throw a load of bread at a turtleduck and I thought it’d be funny to show my Mom.”

“I cannot imagine your mom finding that funny,” Toph tells him. Her voice usually sounds like boulders crashing down a mountain.

Now it sounds a little like pebbles falling downhill.

“You’re right.” Whatever Toph can imagine of Zuko’s mother is based on the memories he has shared with her. “She, uh, she got kind of annoyed with me. Told me off. And then the turtleduck’s mom came along and quacked at me, and then she bit my ankle. I think she was annoyed at me too.”

Toph snickers. “You were a really dumb nine-year-old, if a turtleduck bit you and drew blood.”

“Thanks.”

“Wanna know how I know?”

“Sure.”

Toph smirks at him. “Turtleducks don’t even have teeth.”

He sighs. “I knew you’d just think I was a really dumb nine-year-old.”

“You’re also a really dumb sixteen-year-old.”

Zuko raps the ground again, and she snickers again.

“Mom told me it was because if you mess with their babies, mothers bite back. And, uh. I didn’t really get it. But I really messed up in Ba Sing Se.”

“You said that last night.”

“Last night, you said it was really cool that I got Suki and Sokka’s dad out of prison.”

“I did _not_ ,” Toph spits, and Zuko almost laughs at how outraged she is. How utterly _secure_ and _fierce_ she is in her perceived infallibility. How _dare_ anyone question her? “I said it was cool that you got put in a _cooler_ , ‘cause that’s _badass_ , but what I _really_ said was that you’re a complete _moron_ for going without an earthbender!”

“Or a waterbender.”

“Waterbenders _suck_ ,” she declares, folding her arms. “And I’m done with them.”

“She’s doing this because she doesn’t want you to get hurt,” Zuko reminds her softly. “She really does care, Toph.”

Toph’s quiet for a bit as she considers this. When she speaks again, her voice is resigned.

“I’m gonna have to go and apologise to her, aren’t I?”

“If that’s what you think you should do.”

“I _hate_ apologising. It’s stupid.”

“I think It’s cool that you can stand your ground so often,” Zuko says. “But we don’t have to push back all the time, you know?”

“You talking about your uncle again?”

“Maybe,” Zuko admits. “But, uh. I think he liked you.”

“Of course he did,” Toph retorts. “Gramps has got _sense_.”

“And I think he’d want you to know that people care about you. I know that’s –” he swallows. “What he always tried to help me realise.”

“Yeah, I know. He told me.”

“He did?” Zuko was unaware of this. Now, he’s wondering what else Uncle told her. “What – what else did he say?”

 _Please Agni, do not let him have mentioned the time I dropped my tsungi horn mid-recital_.

Toph lets out an angry huff, and for a moment, Zuko is concerned she isn’t going to answer him. When it does come, her answer is dragged forth from between gritted teeth. “He’d probably want me to apologise, too.”

Zuko shifts a little closer to her. “You, uh. What chores did Katara want you to do?”

“She wanted me to clean up the dishes from breakfast,” Toph gripes. “I can’t even _see_ them!”

“Aren’t they clay?” Zuko’s pretty sure earthbenders can bend clay.

Toph turns to him and waves a hand in front of her very aggrieved face. “That’s not the _point_ , Sparky!”

Zuko laughs out loud at that. “Okay, okay. So, um – I’ll go and do the dishes, okay? And you can go and find Katara.”

“ _Ugh_.”

“Apologies are hard,” Zuko agrees with the unvoiced sentiment.

“Not if you’re not an idiot,” Toph mutters. “So long as your apologies don’t involve admitting to sending a Fire Nation assassin after people, they usually go pretty well.”

“Okay, okay,” Zuko mumbles. “Go talk to Katara.”

“ _Fine_.”

“And, Toph?” He says as they get to their feet and start walking.

“What?”

He hesitates to say it, because she might laugh at him, but that hadn't stopped him from telling her about the turtleducks. “It’s, um. The Temple. It’s kind of a cool place. And I don't think Katara will be mad at you.”

She might be blind, but he thinks she can still see what he’s trying to say. “ _Whatever_ , Sparky.”

That’s okay. He can live with that. “Alright.”

“I guess I probably owe you a spark rock,” she says begrudgingly.

Zuko scratches his head. “I don’t think they really work unless you have two of them, Toph.”

“Don’t push your luck, Sparky. Remember that time you burnt my feet?”

He laughs. She takes a step closer so they’re walking side by side. He thinks he knows what she’s trying to say. “Whatever, Badgermole.”

Thud.

“ _Ouch!_ – okay, okay, _alright_ …”

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to Mandey.
> 
> No offence meant to anyone named or hailing from any kind of Dakota. It's all love.  
> Any recognisable quotes are from _A:TLA_.


End file.
